Call It What It Is (It's the End of the World)
by Drag0nst0rm
Summary: Kendra doesn't like it when Seth calls it the apocalypse, but Kendra isn't here right now, so he can say what he wants.


Kendra didn't like it when he used the word apocalypse. Seth wasn't sure what other word you were supposed to use when the dragons and the demons were decking it out without much concern for the human casualties caught in their wake.

Besides, the words just sounded cool, and if they had to put up with all the rest of it, he should at least get to use cool words.

Unfortunately, Kendra was off in the Fairy Realm trying to talk the Fairy Queen into helping instead of just shutting her doors and bunkering down, so he didn't have a chance to defend his view of the matter right now.

He was also a little concerned that the Fairy Queen might just shut the doors and bunker down with Kendra still inside them, but Bracken was still right there with Seth, so as long as that held true, Seth figured they were probably alright.

Or at least, alright on that front. On all other fronts -

Well, on the plus side, the mountain fortress that had once belonged to Thronis was still holding, and provisions that had been meant to last a Sky Giant and his servants for months were plenty for their current party.

On the downside, the battles between Celebrant and his dragons against the demons were literally shaking the mountain.

"Okay!" Seth said brightly from the head of the table they were trying to have a strategy session around. It was built to accommodate Thronis, so the chairs were just as massively oversized and Seth had decided to skip his altogether. He used his only to scramble up onto the table itself where he could stand at the head of the equally massive map rolled out across it. "What have we got?"

Tanu and Warren might should have been the ones to head up this meeting, but since he was still the official caretaker, they'd stepped back to let him him do it. Bracken would have been another good candidate, but since he was . . . well, frankly still a little out of it, he hadn't stepped forward either, though at least he was here at the meeting to represent the interests of the friendlier magical creatures they'd managed to bring into the fortress with them. The people they'd rescued on their missions outside of the sanctuary - now unfortunately paused until the fighting moved away a little - would have been more likely to protest, but they'd gotten the picture once the milk started being shared out, and that had overawed most of them into going along with things for now. Layla, a thirty-something woman who had managed to evacuate most of her small school when a dragon attacked, was there to represent that group, and she wasn't likely to protest either.

She'd seen him do something scary to that dragon.

"Celebrant doesn't show signs of letting up anytime soon," Tanu reported. "Also, I'm running out of ingredients for the gaseous potion that makes it safe for me to go out and check."

"Right," Seth said. "It may be time to consider using Thronis's orb to control the weather. If we can get a good thunderstorm going - " Another powerful rattle shook the whole room around them. Seth stumbled almost to his knees. He sat down quickly and tried to look like he meant to do that. "Well, if it gets bad enough out there, maybe they won't be so ready to continue the fight."

"We can't keep it going for too long," Warren pointed out. "There was a reason Thronis was hesitant to use it for too long. They've been mostly ignoring us so far. If we annoy them too badly, that could change fast."

"A short one, perhaps?" It was the first time one of their non-veteran people had spoken up in a while, and Seth waved Layla on to encourage her. "I mean, thunderstorms happen naturally here, right? As long as we don't drag it on for days they might not even notice it was us."

"They would have blamed Thronis at once," Warren said thoughtfully, but he didn't sound totally against it.

"But they knew Thronis was controlling the weather," Seth pointed out triumphantly. "And now they all know that he fell against Celebrant. They've got no idea we can use it without our brains dribbling out of our ears."

Everyone paused for a moment to consider that imagery.

Tanu coughed. "Not to be a downer, but are _we_ sure we can use it without our brains dribbling out of our ears?"

"It can't be worse than the Oculus, right?" Seth said breezily. "It'll be fine."

"Kendra couldn't use that without the Fairy Queen's help," Bracken said. He'd been quieter than Seth liked since they'd gotten him away from Ronodin, but he hadn't been actively panicking like the townspeople had when the dragons first hit, so no one had managed to make time for it yet. Seth felt a little guilty about that.

Seth deflated a little. "True. But this isn't the Oculus, so it should be easier. And you've got . . . skills, right? I mean, Fairy Prince and all?"

Layla's eyes went wide. Huh. Guess she hadn't heard about that part yet.

Bracken considered this. "It would help if Kendra was here," he said quietly. "Just to be safe. But . . . yes, I should be able to manage it."

"Just a short one," Seth assured him. "Like, the shortest one possible. And you can stop anytime it gets to feel too much."

"Please stop anytime it starts feeling like too much," Warren cut in. "I don't think the Fairy Queen would appreciate us having to tell her your brain dribbled out of your ears."

That was even more terrifying imagery.

"It'll be fine," Seth said more firmly. "In other news, I've managed to track down where most of the wraiths and zombies and stuff from Blackwell Keep have gotten to!"

The others looked at him warily. Layla was mouthing zombies to herself.

"They're heading this way, aren't they?" Tanu asked.

"They are _absolutely_ headed this way," Seth confirmed with a grin.

Layla leaned forward a little hesitantly. "Isn't that a problem?"

Seth felt the deep well of power that Ronodin had woken up in him: dark, vast, and all but leaping to be used.

His grin widened. "That is the _opposite_ of a problem," he told her. "Lady and gentlemen, we've got our very own army on its way."


End file.
